Interesting video post from Hudson over at the NRA. We seem to be seeing some small glimmer of hope that 2010 could be our leader in the past three years. I know to many operators this will be a huge sigh of relief.

In my travels I would have to agree with Hudson and the NRA on the point that operators are seeing signs of life and growth. Though I do think this has come from operators getting a bit tighter around the belt, leaner in operations and in some cases closing the under-performing locations.

One area that has not grown much this past year has been the area of new store openings, which is indicative of the people I am talking with, just slower moving. What is interesting though is that the really smart operators are snapping up prime real estate and prime personnel where they can in hopes that they will be primed for the recovery, which looks to be toward the end of 2010.